Improvement in potato-diggers



1. w wooLsEY.

Potato Digger.

Patented Sept. 9, 1862.

IMPROVEMENT IN POTATO=D|GGERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,434, dated September 9, 1862.

To all 'whom it may concer'n:

Be it known that I, J AMEs W. WooLsEY, of Niles, in the county of Berrien and `State of Michigan, have invented a new and Improved Potato Plow or Digger, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the fiaccompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Fignre 1 is a side view of vmy invention. h'ig. 2 is a plan or top view of the same. Fig. 3 is a back view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention consists in the employment or use of a double mold-board formed of slats, and provided with a front piece or colter with shanks or wings attached, the slats being constructed and arranged in such a manner as to greatly facilitate the passage of the earth between them, and at the same time throw the potatoes out of the hills and to either side of them as the implement is drawn along.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invcntion, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents the beam of the plow, and B B the handles attached thercto. These parts may be constructed in the usual way, and therefore do not require a minute description.

O represents a curved standard or colter,

vwhich is of V form lin its horizontal section, and is connected at its upper end to the beam A by a screw-bolt, a. This' standard has its concave side facing forward, and it is braced by an inelined bar, D, the lower end of which is secured to the back part of the standard or colter and the upper end titted on a cross-bar, D', which connects the two handles. The lower end of the standard is provided with two horizontal shanks or wings, E E, which diverge from the standard at either side at equal angles,forming a solell for the plow. These shanks or wings may be cast with the standard all in one piece, or they may bc cast separately and bolted to it. The lower end or part of the standard O forms the share of the plow, as shown at b.

F represents an upright bail-shaped bar, the lower ends of the sides c o of which are bolted to the back parts of the shanks or wings E E. The upper part, d, of the bar F has a horizontal position, extending nearly thewhole width of the back part of the plow, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and is secured by a bolt, ax, to the bar D, as shown in Fig. 3.

G represents the slats which form the moldboards. These slats should be of steel and of fiat oval form in their transverse section. They are flattened at their front ends and secured to the standard O by bolts e. The back ends of the slats are secured by staples or hooks e' to the sides c c of the bar F, said sides being curved outward from their lower to their upper ends, so that the slats G, when properly curved, may form a concave surface similar to the solid mold'boards in use on ordinary plows. (See Figs. 2 and 3.) The slats G are not secnred flatwise to the standard O and bar F, but edgewise, so as to present their cuttingedges to the earth and potatoes. This is the essential feature of the invention,for the sharp edges of the slats admit of the earth passing readily between them, and they also have a tendency to break the clods of earth, effecting a thorough separation of the potatoes therefrom, the latter being cast out at either side of the hills or drills. The standard O splits thehills ordrills, while the slattedmold-boards raise the potatoes out from the earth.

The device as a whole is extremely simple and efficient, and will perform its work rapiclly and in a thorough manner.

` The bar F may be of wrought-iron, and the slats Gr are placed at such a distance apart as to prevent the potatoes passing between them.

I am aware that slatted mold-boards have been used and arranged in various ways in order to dig up and separate potatoes from the earth; and I am also aware fiat or cylindrica'l rods or slats have been used for the purpose, and have proved quite inefficient on account of the earth not passing freely between them, the slats being liable to clog or choke up-a contingency which cannot occur in using my invention. w

My invention also possesses the advantage of being readily cleared of any obstruotion which may bind between the slats, as the latter being of steel and fiat, with an edgewise position, they may be readily sprun g apart and the obstruction allowed to pass out.

I do not olxn broadly slatted mow-boards, for they have been previously used; but

I do claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentt 1. The standard O, shanks or wings E E, and bar F, in connection With the slatsGr, of flat, oval, or any approximate form, attaohed edgewise to the standard C and bal' F, to

operate as and for the purpose herein set forth.

2. Separately, the flat oval-shaped slots G, .When attached edgewiso to the parts which support them, to operate as and for the'purpose speoified. t

JAMES VV. WOOLSEY.

Witnesses:

J osEPH S. BAooN, OLEMENT L. BAR-RON. 

